Bill Nelson: “I wish to address a topic that is appropriate, since tropical storm Alberto is on the coast of Florida--in the Big Bend…”

“I wish to address a topic that is appropriate, since tropical storm Alberto is on the coast of Florida--in the Big Bend area of Florida--right now. Fortunately, Alberto stayed a tropical storm, although there was a moment last night when the National Hurricane Center thought it was going to become a hurricane, which is 74-plus miles an hour. Isn't it interesting that here we are in early June--normally, hurricanes don't really start brewing up until July, and the severe ones don't start brewing up until August and September. But we see the confluence of two things. We see not only the active hurricane cycles the meteorologists will tell you about, that these are 10- and 15-year cycles and hurricanes will become much more active and much more frequent. When you add that meteorological phenomenon to the fact of global warming where, as the Earth's temperatures rise because of the trapping of the greenhouse gases, the rising of the temperature of the water, the rising of the temperature of the atmosphere--the effect of that is more frequent and more ferocious storms. Whether that global warming is affecting this particular cycle, I know not. But I know that the phenomenon of global warming added to--if we are in a 10- or 15- year meteorological phenomena of hurricane cycles, that can add all the more to the distress, dismay, and tragedy that the Atlantic and the gulf coast of the United States will suffer over the coming number of years.…”